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Sunday, February 28, 2016

It wouldn’t be anything new or revelatory or shocking to tell you that Jesus
often taught the people and his disciples using parables. In fact, we are told
that Jesus “would never speak to [the crowds] except in parables.” (Matthew 13:
34/ Mark 4:34 NJB). Many of us have been told about Jesus and his parables
since we were children; we have them memorized; we have our favorites. We’ve
sung songs and hymns based on the parables. We’ve seen them portrayed in skits,
rendered in paintings, stained in glass windows, and filmed for the movie screen.

We know the parable of the sower, and the darnel (though we
may know it more familiarly as the parable of the wheat and tares.) We know the
parable of the mustard seed and yeast. We know the parable of the wicked
tenants, the parable of the lamp, the lost coin; we know the parable of the
prodigal son.

But, as familiar, as they have become to us over the years,
perhaps it is still possible to be surprised by the parables. They really are
intended to surprise, to catch the listener off guard with an eternal truth
wrapped within a pleasantly told tale. Perhaps it’s time to be surprised by the
parables again. Would you be surprised to discover that there are no parables
in the Gospel of John?[i]
There’s a lot of teaching going on in John’s gospel, but none of it is via the
parable path. The parables that we know and love are all found in the three
synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Some of the parable were told to deliberately obfuscate; some of the parables
were riddles told with the intent to confuse, told so that they may not
understand.

“Then the disciples went up to him and asked, ‘why do you talk to [the crowds]
in parables?’ In answer, he said, ‘Because to you is granted to understand the
mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not granted. Anyone who
has will be given more and will have more than enough; but anyone who has not will
be deprived even of what he has. The reason I talk to them in parables is that
they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. So in
their case what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled:

Listen and listen, but never understand!
Look and look, but never perceive!
This people’s heart has grown coarse,
their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight
to avoid using their eyes to see, their ears to hear,
their heart to understand,
changing their ways and being healed by me.’”
(Matthew 13: 10 – 17 NJB)

It may strike us as strange, but sometimes Jesus did not speak clearly.
Sometimes his message was hidden inside a riddle. One of my homiletics
instructors frequently reminded us to “put the good stuff on the bottom shelf
so people can reach it.” But Jesus didn’t always do this. Sometimes he made his
teaching difficult to understand.

This isn’t to say that he was always difficult, or that his message was
consistently obscure, or that he never explained, or that Jesus cannot be
understood. Jesus did sometimes, when pressed, explain the riddles; Jesus did,
on occasion, explain the parables. But not often. Between the few that he
explained and the ones told to deliberately complicate, there are a great many
of Jesus’ parables that are simply told without explanation. They are left for
the audience (whether the original aural audience, or us today as a reading
audience) to interpret. These parables are told without a key, without a guide.
And the audience is expected to work through them, without help, to find their
meaning and application.

Our text for today is one of these unexplained parables. Neither Jesus, nor the
author of the gospel has provided us with a key to the parable. And, what is
more, it is an open ended parable. It has a beginning, a middle – but no
definitive ending. It is up to us to provide the ending (provide the
endings-plural?) and the interpretation.

In Luke 13: 6 – 9 we read:

He told this parable, ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he
came looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to his vinedresser, “for
three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and
finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?” “Sir,” the
man replied, “leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and
manure it: it may bear fruit net year; if not, then you can cut it down.”’
(Luke 13: 6 – 9 NJB)

This parable comes in a lengthy section of Jesus’ teachings. Jesus has been
speaking to a large crowd since the beginning of chapter 12. He has been teaching them with plain
instruction and ethical commands as well as with parables. And in this
particular parable he used a set of stock images familiar to his audience.

The image of the vineyard and its owner had been used repeatedly in their religious
history, going back to the prophets. The vineyard was readily understood as an
image of the nation of Israel, as was the fig tree. And they recognized God as
the owner of the vineyard.

We could get hung up on identifying the vine-dresser, or the three year period
within this story (many commentaries suggest that this equates to the three
year ministry of Jesus, but this isn’t necessary.

He tells the story but doesn’t end it. So let’s try out a
few possible endings:

Ending 1
Then the owner answered the gardener, “Do as you have said.” And the gardener lavished great care on the
fig tree for a year - watering it, fertilizing the ground, carefully pruning
it, but at the end of the year there were still no figs. The man returned and said, “Dig it up and
throw it into the fire. And let the ground be given to another that will bear
fruit.”

This may be the most obvious ending, and is fitting with the context of the
preceding chapter wherein Jesus speaks of imminent judgement, but it is not, by
any means, the only possible ending. Shall we consider a few more
possibilities?

Ending 2
Then the owner answered the gardener, “Do as you have said.” And the vinedresser lavished great care on
the fig tree for year – watering it, fertilizing the ground, carefully pruning
it, but at the end of the year there were still no figs. The owner returned and said, “Give it another
year. There still may be hope for this
tree.”

If Moses could repeatedly argue with God to spare the people of Israel, and if
Abraham could bargain with God for the people of Sodom, it could be that the
vinedresser (who is he?) can plead on our behalf to the owner of the vineyard.
It could be…

Ending 3
Then the man answered the gardener, “No.
This tree will not produce any fruit here. Dig it up and move it elsewhere. Perhaps it
will do better on the other side of the garden.”

Perhaps a change is necessary. Perhaps something new is needed…

Ending 4
Then the man answered the gardener, “No.
This tree will never produce any fruit. Cut it down. But sell the timber to the carpenter. There is still use in this tree even in its
unfruitfulness.”

Grace even in judgement? Perhaps.

Ending 5
Then the owner answered the gardener, “Do as you have said.” And the gardener
lavished great care on the fig tree and, over the course of the next year it
produced more fruit than any other tree in the garden.

It’s possible, the big Hollywood ending. Maybe it’s not entirely plausible,
maybe it’s not the most realistic, but it is, I suppose, possible.

Ending 6
Then the owner answered the gardener, “Do as you have said.” And the gardener
lavished great care on the fig tree and, over the course of the next year it
began to produce fruit -not as much as the other trees, but still more than
nothing and the owner was satisfied.

Ending 7
Then the man answered the gardener, “Do as you have said.” And the gardener lavished great care on the
fig tree for a year – watering it, fertilizing the ground, carefully pruning
it, but shortly before the end of the year the tree was struck by lighting and
burned to the ground.

Hey – the future is uncertain. Open ended and uncertain. Disasters can and do
happen, and we don’t know what time we have left.

There could be many more endings, different potential
outcomes to this story. The parable is open ended, just like the future. It is
up to us to think about this parable, to find its ending, to interpret its
meaning and application. What will we do? What will we change? How will we
live? How do we read this parable?

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The artwork and music published on this blog are copyright 2010 - 2018 by Thatjeffcarter was here. All rights reserved. But I could be persuaded to let you use them. Contact me for permissions. "The views, comments, statements and opinions expressed on this Web site do not necessarily represent the official position of The Salvation Army." I am no longer with the Salvation Army, anyway.